The Visit

A Soul for A Soul

"We have a problem." Nat walked out of their ship onto the grass. Everyone else had successfully gathered their stones and they were just waiting on the Knowhere team to return. "It was gone."

Loki's head turned around from where he was sitting. "What do you mean it was gone?"

Tony and Clint walked out of the ship behind Nat. Tony exited his suit and sat on the steps. "The rock was gone. The place was in shambles and a lot of people were dead. They said it was Thanos."

Loki nodded thoughtfully. "Well, guess we have to do 'plan b'."

Everyone looked at him. "Reindeer games, we didn't have a 'plan b'. You said yourself that he would be unstoppable if he even had one."

"Before. Now have five stones against him. We should stand a fighting chance. It's just a matter of finding the bastard. Maybe we could ask Heimdall? If he's in the nine realms Heimdall should be able to see him."

Thor squinted his eyes in confusion. "Loki, if you go back to Asgard you might be put in a cell or worse and I can't go back until I'm able to return the tesseract."

"Okay, so we'll be discreet," Loki responded, like it was an obvious answer.

Thor walked over to where Loki was relaxing on the couch, his head on the armrest and his arm resting on the top of the backboard. He looked surprisingly relaxed for the situation they were in.

"Brother, what is wrong with you?"

Loki looked up a bit. "What do you mean?"

"You're acting strange."

"I'm just focused on the matter at hand."

Wanda cleared her throat loudly, cutting into their conversation.

"If it is agreeable to him, I could call the Sorcerer Supreme. He used to be a doctor so if something's wrong with Loki he should be able to tell."

"Wonderful idea!" Loki spoke as he sat up. "Then Thor can see that I am perfectly alright."

----------------------------------------------------
"My name is Doctor Stephen Strange."

The doctor stood in front of Loki, who was sitting on a chair in the middle of the room.

"Loki."

"I know who you are. Whatever is happening inside you is what interests me."

"I'm fine."

"Sure you are. Do you feel any pain or discomfort?"

"Besides my legs aching from walking up that damn mountain-"

"What mountain?" Stephen interrupted.

"On Vormir. We had to walk up a mountain to get the soul stone."

Stephen narrowed his eyes. "The soul stone was protected by... a mountain?"

"Well you also had to do a exchange. 'You must lose that which you love. A soul for a soul.' "

Stephen pressed his lips in a line and closed his eyes. "Who did you kill?"

"No one. I jumped off, it accepted, and I had to be alive to claim my prize so it kept me alive."

Stephen's head jerked up and he opened his eyes. "So you were the sacrifice?"

"Essentially."

"Tell me, have you felt tired or slept since you got back."

"Well..." Loki furrowed his brows. "No, actually."

"What are you feeling right now?"

"I told you that my legs are aching alr-"

Stephen cut him off. "No, that's a physical sensation. What are you feeling."

Loki thought for a second and then let out a puzzled, "I don't know."

Stephen looked at the rest of the eagerly waiting avengers. "Can one of you get some restraints that are strong enough to hold him? And something for him to bite on. This next bit might be particularly painful and I'd rather have him not hit me and not break his teeth."

Tony went down to the lab and produced a set of restraints and a rag. Bucky placed his hand on Loki's knee. "You okay with this?"

Loki nodded and Bucky backed away so Tony could restrain him. With Loki's hands secured behind the chair, his ankles to the chair's legs and the rag in his mouth, the doctor approached him. He did a few hand movements and muttered a few things before thrusting one of his hands into Loki's chest. Loki screamed through the gag and threw his head back. Bucky closed his eyes tightly.

Soon enough the doctor's hand came out and Loki spit out the gag to breathe. Stephen turned around once more to face the group. Steve walked up to him. "Well?"

"Nothing."

"That's good, right?"

"Not exactly. When I reached into him... well to put it in terms you all will understand, he doesn't have a soul. I suspect that the stone took that as a sacrifice. "

They all started to worry a bit. Wanda stepped forward to Stephen as well. "Will he be alright?"

"Depends on your definition of alright. He can still do magic, talk, think, feel pain, etcetera; he just can't feel anything emotionally and he doesn't need to eat or sleep or anything that a normal person would have to do."

The soul stone hummed on the table where it sat.